The oldest building in St. Petersburg is the  Peter and Paul Fortess constructed by Peter the Great in 1703 on a swamp near the Bay of Finland.

Peter built his city to break the create a new capital away from Moscow where the conservative political class of boyars fiercely resisted his effforts to reform and modernize the rural, backward country.    

Peter imported architects, designers, and shipbuilders form Europe to help him create a modern city which access to Erurpe and the rest of the world. 

Peter chose the location on the Bay of Finland to give his army a bulwark against the Swedes who had colonized and controlled much of northern Russia far from Moscow.   

A young Russian girl next to the famous statue of Peter outside the entrance to the fortress.

The Fortress was used as a prison that once housed Lenin older brother, ALexander, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Maxim Gorky, Leon Trotsky, and Michael Bakunin.  Cells were several stories underground where the frigid conditions were brutal.  Many prisoners died of exposure, disease and hunger.

The spire of Peter & Paul is the tallest point in the city.  It was a point of pride for Peter who wanted his city to have the tallest  building in the country.

The interior is also a cathedral and different in style from typical Byzantine design,  another example of Peter's attempt to Westernize his city. 

Inside the cathdral are the crypts of every Romanov Tsar from Peter to Nicholas II and his family.